Abstract

We demonstrate the controlled preparation of heteroepitaxialdiamond nano- and microstructures on silicon wafer based iridium films as hosts for single color centers. Our approach uses electron beam lithography followed by reactive ion etching to pattern the carbon layer formed by bias enhanced nucleation on the iridium surface. In the subsequent chemical vapor deposition process, the patterned areas evolve into regular arrays of (001) oriented diamond nano-islands with diameters of <500 nm and a height of ≈60 nm. In the islands, we identify single SiV color centers with narrow zero phonon lines down to 1 nm at room temperature.

This research has been partially funded by the European Commission's 7. Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No. 611143 (DIADEMS). E.N. acknowledges funding via the NanoMatFutur program of the German Ministry of Education and Research.